"Ruby, are you ready?"
The gentle voice coming from just outside of Ruby's door was none other than Dia's.
Ruby hopped up, taking her earphones out and rushing to the door to meet her sister. It was her birthday today, so she and Dia had planned to spend the day together. Ruby was so excited! She had been counting the days for months now, much to the annoyance of her sister. She remembers telling Dia, "Sixity days until my birthday!" and her sister looking at her with the most confused and puzzled look.
"Ruby... that's two whole months away."
Ruby giggled at the memory, but greeted the Dia in front of her with a warm hug.
"Let's go to the kitchen and start baking the cake!" Dia told her, urging her little sister to follow her into the kitchen.
Ruby followed happily, humming a tune as she walked behind Dia. When the two finally made it to the kitchen, Ruby saw that the utensils for baking were already on the counter, including the cake mixer. Among various other ingredients, there was butter, sugar, flour, eggs, milk, and strawberries.
Ruby was in awe.
Dia giggled, seeing how entranced Ruby was. "We start by slicing up the strawberries. Can you do that, Ruby?"
Ruby's eyes began to sparkle, a hint of determination in them. "I can do it!"
Ready to get to work, Ruby moved the bowl of strawberries over to a counter that had free space, and pulled out a small kitchen knife. She also took out a small, glass cutting board from the cupboard. Ruby began by pulling a strawberry out of the bowl and placing it on the cutting board, and slicing it down its middle with the knife. She repeated this process for each strawberry following it.
"Be sure to be careful, okay? Don't cut yourself." Dia said, moving over to where Ruby was. She watched her sister cut the strawberries evenly down the centre, while making sure to keep her fingers away from the knife.
"Good girl." She patted Ruby on the head.
Ruby grinned upon receiving the pat, but kept up her work. Dia got to work combining ingredients and flouring a cake pan.
When Ruby had finished, Dia had just gotten started on mixing the ingredients in the cake mixer. When Ruby came over to tell her she was done, she smiled. "Good job, Ruby! Do you want to help me mix?"
"Yeah, I wanna help!" Ruby replied immediately, excited to help Dia with the work she was doing.
"Okay, hold on to this and swirl it around the bowl to make sure everything mixes together. I'm going to get the eggs ready."
Ruby nodded, taking the beater in her hands and doing exactly as Dia directed. The instrument vibrated in her hands, and was a but tricky to keep a hold of, but she did it! After Dia had finished beating the eggs, she added them as well as the milk to the mix. Ruby continued to swirl the ingredients as much as she could, but she was getting a little tired.
Dia noticed this right away. "Do you want me to take over, Ruby?" She asked.
"Yeah, thanks sis." Ruby replied, turning off the instrument and passing it to her older sister.
After Dia had finished, she put the mixture in the cake pan and put it in the oven. "About 20 minutes..."
Suddenly, the door bell rang. Ruby wasn't expecting guests today, so she wasn't sure who it could possibly be. Maybe it was the mailman with a package? Ruby was expecting some charms in the mail.
"I'll get the door. Ruby, go wash your hands, okay?"
Ruby nodded, rushing to the bathroom to get her hands washed. They were covered in strawberry juice and cake mixture, so it took a little while for her hands to get completely clean, even with lots of soap and water. The soap she used was peach scented, an item Dia had picked up when they were at the grocer a few days ago. It made Ruby's hands smell so good.
When Ruby left the bathroom, she noticed the living room light was off. It was so dark that Ruby could barely see, and had her feel her way to the doorway that was beside the light switch. When she turned the lights on, she saw a big group of people standing in the middle of the room.
"Surprise!" They all yelled.
"E-Eek!" Ruby shrieked.
The group of people was Aqours, it turned out. Chika rushed over to hug Ruby, who was still scared from the sudden group of people in her house. She calmed down pretty quickly with Chika attaching herself to her though. Chika was always very warm, if not a bit rowdy. It was easy to calm down with Chika holding her.
"Hey, no fair, I wanna hug Ruby too!" You cried.
"My little demon is already growing so old... heh. Soon, you can truly become a fallen angel like Yohane."
"Yoshiko, stop it, zura. It's Ruby's birthday."
"Shouldn't we do what we planned?" Riko questioned.
At Riko's words, Chika let go of Ruby. "Oh, right!" All of the members of Aqours, including Dia, suddenly scrounged up something from behind their backs, or from inside their pockets. Before Ruby had time to think, they all threw what looked like candy wrappers in the air and towards Ruby.
"Candy wrappers?" Ruby asked.
Mari giggled. "It's real candy, Ruby. Isn't it shiny!?"
Ruby's eyes started to glow having the realization that her friends just threw so much candy at her. All this candy, all for her. She could eat it all in one―
"Ruby! Before you get any ideas, you're not eating all this candy at once." Dia interrupted Ruby's thoughts, as if she could read them.
"B-but sis―"
"No but's! This much candy isn't good for you all at once!"
Ruby sobbed, Hanamaru holding her and attempting to cheer her up. "There, there, Ruby. You'll be able to save all of it so it'll last a long time, zura!"
Everyone laughed, Ruby eventually stifling her sobbing. She picked up a lollipop off the floor and began taking off the wrapper. It was a big, round lollipop, with pink and blue colours swirling together. When Ruby licked it, she could taste an artificial strawberry flavour. With more licks, she even started to taste another artificial flavour! This time, it was blueberries.
Ruby was in heaven.
"I love everyone so much. Th-thank you!" Ruby shouted.
Every single member of Aqours couldn't help but grin. Seeing Ruby's precious smile was all they could have asked for out of today.
"Everyone loves you, too, Ruby." Dia said, walking over to where Ruby was standing. She patted her head. "Now, I'm going to go get the rest of this cake ready. Who wants to help?"
"Meee!" Chika yelled, You not far behind her.
"M-me too, sis!" Ruby chimed in.
The three of them followed Dia into the kitchen. It was a mess trying to get everyone jobs to help, but eventually they finished making the cake. Dia, of course, did most of the work.
The rest of the night was spent quietly at the Kurosawa residence, as everyone took turns complimenting Ruby and giving her more personal gifts. She received some Hanayo charms, a Printemps CD that she had been missing, and some very heartfelt cards, among many other things.
It was a day Ruby would never forget.